Tea while traveling

Do any of you carry your own tea to restaurants and ask for hot water? How well is that received? I will be traveling quite a bit over the next couple of months and I normally drink loose tea, I am wondering how to get my daily tea without settling for lipton tea bags many places offer.

I never fail to carry a small supply, most good tea retailers will sell the make your own bag kits or filters that fit into your cup. I have a tiny airtight container that slips into my bag and is not bulky.

I've never had a bad reaction from people but some may want to charge for the use of the cup and the water they are serving you.

The other thing is that if they see there is a need and desire for loose tea and great quality tea perhaps they would look into a stock for themselves, alot of retailers are scared of quality tea as a bag is way more profitable and far easier for them to get and use.

FoodTVFan wrote:Do any of you carry your own tea to restaurants and ask for hot water? How well is that received?

I will do this sometimes, but really depends on the place. At places where I go often and the folks at the restaurant know me, I'll do it (especially Chinese places, where asking for a pot of hot water isn't seen as that eccentric in the first place).

I try not to make a big production about it, no matter where I am.

Starbucks will almost always give you a cup of hot water for free, which is handy for brewing big-cup style directly in the cup.

I will bring tea and travel bags, prefilling before going to a restaurant.

I do not want to cause a problem for the server nor offend, so I seem to be able to have them suggest bringing hot water for me.

I first ask if they have a hot tea selection (which they rarely seem to do). If they say no, just Lipton or similar, I make a disappointed look ... and ask if it would be too much trouble to bring me hot water, offering to pay for the tea. They never charge and always seem happy to oblige.

If they have a selection of Bigelow or similar which indicates they are at least trying to cater to tea drinkers, I will often order tea, but will use my own ... unless the tea is priced too high. Even here, they seem to figure out that I do not want their Bigelow tea and will often bring me hot water at their suggestion.

If they have a drinkable tea, which usually only happens at a sushi bar or similar, I will drink house tea.

My family tradition is strictly against drinking tea during or immediately after a meal, unless it's puerh with certain meals. So carrying tea to a restaurant is not an option for me. But in recent years I started to get concerned about puerh quality of most Cantonese restaurants. So I may consider carrying puerh in the future, but probably I will be too lazy to do so.

I think most restaurants should have no problem providing hot water. I usually ask for warm water instead of ice water with my meal. There was only one time a waiter had a problem getting it for me. He said, "Sorry, we have ice water and hot water, but no warm water."

gingkoseto wrote:My family tradition is strictly against drinking tea during or immediately after a meal, unless it's puerh with certain meals. So carrying tea to a restaurant is not an option for me. But in recent years I started to get concerned about puerh quality of most Cantonese restaurants. So I may consider carrying puerh in the future, but probably I will be too lazy to do so.

I think that tradition is probably best for health - supposedly drinking tea within a few hours of eating can cause you to lose some nutrients (calcium, I believe).

I will drink tea at restaurants occasionally, but more often, I try to drink hot water, and have tea earlier or later in the day.

someone wise once told me drink as little as possible/or nothing at all while you eat I find if I eat slow and chew well there's no urge to drink while I eat Tea usually 30 mins-hour or so after the meal seems to work fine for me

but if im eating raw meats or seafood a potent green tea is definitely something I would sip on if available , along with a lot of wasabi

wyardley wrote:supposedly drinking tea within a few hours of eating can cause you to lose some nutrients (calcium, I believe).

Not just calcium, and not just tea i believe , any beverage really besides juice puree and maybe... dairy?

I notice that when drinking while eating I produce a lot less saliva...probably not a good thing when you are trying to digest food...

I guess it also depends on how dry/spicy/sweet/processed your food is too, and how much water content is inside to begin with

My question isn't so much about consuming with a meal as it is about where you can get a decent tea to drink while away from home for days. Or do you just do without till you get home. I usually drink water with a meal, sometimes wine with dinner. But if you ask for hot water from a place that would likely have it, I would think the most likely source is going to be somewhere that also serves food. I would feel obligated to buy something even if it's just a cookie if I am going to ask them for the water.

I used to carry teabags that I would fill with my own loose leaf, but not anymore. In many places the water was not hot enough, and also not suitable for my tea (too hard since I live in KY). People never were rude or judgmental though. After all you are their customer...they want your patronage. Are you traveling by own car? Nowadays I carry around a tea backpack! Maybe you would like to do the same! People laugh at me. Just an electric kettle, big plate, teapot, faircup, 2 small cups, waste cup/kamjove safety mechanism weight, a few small portions of tea, and a 3L of water. (maybe some tea snacks too). Not very hard to find a good spot to brew tea nowadays. There's plugs everywhere....though in some airports my kamjove does not seem to want to work

churng wrote:I used to carry teabags that I would fill with my own loose leaf, but not anymore. In many places the water was not hot enough, and also not suitable for my tea (too hard since I live in KY).

I agree - even when it's hot enough, it usually has that hot water dispenser taste. I won't drink tea this way for taste, though sometimes I will drink tea this way just to avoid getting a caffeine withdrawal headache.

I carry tea with me basically all the time. I've never had a problem ordering hot water from a place. In fact, it is much more common these days than I think many of us realize. I will say this though, even my worst experience trying to get hot water for the first time at a place pales in awkwardness to the first time ordering my second favorite odd order, which is a large cup of whipped cream.

My suggestion, just remember that you could be ordering something stranger, and they have probably seen it all.

FoodTVFan wrote:Do any of you carry your own tea to restaurants and ask for hot water? How well is that received? I will be traveling quite a bit over the next couple of months and I normally drink loose tea, I am wondering how to get my daily tea without settling for lipton tea bags many places offer.

On my last visit to Kuala Lumpur, I started buying metal Tea Canisters. A consistent brand was available in several outlets.

Normally available in 250gm, 100gm and 50gm sizes - I bought several

Towards the end of my visit, I found a couple of shops selling them in 25gm sizes - I asked my closest friend teashop owner how practical such a small size was for storing tea -

Not for storing tea he responded but for taking YOUR tea to a restaurant that only sells cheap commercial tea - most of the good Chinese restaurants in Malaysias Chinatowns, are more than happy for customers to take their own tea leaves, and hot water and brewing accompaniments are provided free of charge.

Do any of you carry your own tea to restaurants and ask for hot water? How well is that received?

I regularly bring some oolong or sheng pu along with a gaiwan and holding vessel to our local chinese restaurant. The owner has no problem. I just ask the wait staff for some hot water. They are even okay with refilling as it begins to cool (the seem to get it). They do serve bolay (pu), but it is pretty rough.

Usually I will leave the still good lea with the staff to continue and leave some unbrewed leaf with the owner. It is amazing that seemingly so few Chinese I have met in the US are real teaheads.

It has made it fun to toy with combinations. Golden Water Turtle and schezuan fish has been a favorite.